Recipient. The patient who receives a transplant. See recipient under Donor.

Recipes. Most issues of the BCPA Journal give a recipe or two, usually by Janet Jackson. Here is an index to those recipes. If a reference seems to be wrong, try one issue earlier or later. If you find any errors, please email me rmaddison8@gmail.com

Back numbers from about J142 in 2005 till some time ago, but not recent ones, are available on the BCPA website at http://www.bcpa.eu/PreviousJournals.htm. Our BCPA policy is not to put on the website back issues within the last few months or perhaps a year. From say the BCPA website home page click on Downloads near the top right, then about five lines down click on Download here, then click on the journal issue that you want, and scroll down to the relevant page.

Reference Nutrient Intake, RNI. The RNI gives for each* vitamin and mineral the recommended amount for different ages from babies to adults; and – where appropriate – the different amounts for eg pregnant or nursing mothers. This is the amount of each nutrient that is adequate to prevent deficiencies in 97.5% of the UK population. *For some vitamins and minerals no recommendation is needed or given. The source is Department of Health.

Refusal. A patient may refuse a particular treatment, and/or make a living will. Certain conditions apply. Medics, first aiders, and carers must then comply with the refusal. See under Consent. See also Do not resuscitate DNR.

Rehabilitation means discussion; guided exercise; getting social support; understanding of the illness, treatment, and symptoms; and knowing what to do – lifestyle issues, why and how to exercise, and diet.

It helps to improve health for those who have had any of: heart attack, angioplasty, bypass surgery, stable angina, or heart failure.

After a heart attack, correct rehabilitation reduces the risk of early death by 20%.

It includes greater understanding of the illness and treatment, symptoms and what to do, lifestyle issues, exercise, diet, and getting social support.

Right ventricular heart failure. For right ventricular heart failure see under Heart failure terms.

Risk is a calculated probability or chance of some future result or outcome. The calculation is usually based on the observed pattern of many past patients.

Please distinguish between absolute risk and relative risk, sometimes abbreviated to RR. Eg if a young woman takes diclofenac, the absolute risk of having a heart attack is raised from the normal 0.1% to 0.14% (which gave the misleading headline 40% increase - the increase in relative risk). The 0.1% is the absolute risk when not taking diclofenac; the 0.14% is the absolute risk when taking it. The relative risk is the ratio - the increase in risk is 0.14 divided by 0.1 giving 0.4 = 40%. If, for example, the absolute risks were 0.1% and 0.14%, which are very small, then giving the 40% increase without the absolute figures could be misleading.

Assertions such as 'People with X have increased risk of Y' are usually based on the results of a research trial. Some people with X were compared with some people who did not have X and otherwise were similar so could be statistically compared.

For a yes/no situation example: if 90 patients of 900 previously treated have afterwards had a particular pain, the risk or chance that the next patient will have the pain is about 1 in 10 = 10%.

Observables such as height have a spread.

* Suppose some researchers found that more very tall people develop Y than the population as a whole; then they might assert that tall people have increased risk of developing Y. This may apply to eg weight, blood pressure, or similar variables.

* Eg if the mean of some result for past patients was 100 and their standard deviation, SD, was 15, the chance of the next patient being 2 SDs or more from the mean and in a particular direction such as over 130, is about 2.5% = 1 in 40. See under Standard deviation for why.

Rotablation is a surgical procedure for unblocking coronary heart arteries that cannot be unblocked easily by balloon angioplasty. A very fine drill is fitted on the end of a catheter passed through from the groin to the heart and used to drill out the hard blockage in the coronary artery. From the patient's view and experience it is very like balloon angioplasty. See also angioplasty.

First published in this form 2002, and updated 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017.All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without written permission from the BCPA Head Office.

We give permission for copies to be stored and made within the BCPA and any UK hospital; and these hospitals may give printed but not electronic copies to patients provided the source and copyright is acknowledged on the copies - eg include the page footer.

Authors, sources and acknowledgements

The main sources are BCPA Journal published articles, other information from authors, and publicly available documents and websites. In many cases the journal articles give sources and further information than the Glossary entries.

Parts of the wordings under ECG and Echocardiogram are adapted with permission from BUPA's health information resources, available at www.bupa.co.uk/health-information.